1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a row cleaning attachment to be used with agricultural seeding equipment for cleaning crop residue from a very narrow strip of soil along the planting line.
2. Background of the Invention
Agricultural seeding equipment, such as row crop planters and grain drills, maybe provided with row cleaning attachments of the kind disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,890. Increasingly farmers are switching to no-till or low-till residue management practices in which fields are not plowed or tilled to any appreciable degree between crops. Such practices put added burdens on seeding equipment. For example, crop residue and debris encountered by the seeding equipment may adversely affect seed placement, seed/soil contact, seed emergence and seed germination.
Double cropping soybeans after winter wheat is a popular crop rotation system used in the southern portion of the midwestern United States. The soybeans are typically planted in freshly cut wheat stubble to preserve soil moisture at planting and help control erosion. The freshly cut wheat stubble is slippery and has no chance to weather or deteriorate. As such it is difficult for the seed openers of the soybean seeding equipment to cut the stubble and large amounts of crop residue can be hairpinned into the seed trench causing poor seed/soil contact and poor seeding emergence. In addition many double cropped beans are planted in narrow rows (15 inch or smaller). Currently marketed row cleaners displace too wide a band of residue and therefore are not compatible with narrow row spacings. Farmers do not want a wide bare strip of soil, as wide bare strips are susceptible to rapid drying and crusting when planted in mid-summer.